Family members say it's unclear exactly how noted environmental activist John Cleveland, a Franklin County native, died although it appears a falling tree killed him.

According to his wife, Artie Ann Bates, Cleveland, 55, and his neighbor cut down a large bifurcated ash tree near his home in Letcher County last week.
The tree was "hung up" on some branches and Cleveland apparently tried to finish the job by himself Monday, Bates said.

"As best we can reconstruct he tried to free the tree so it could fall to the ground and somehow it hit him in the chest," she told The State Journal.

"They found him partly on top of the log so it doesn't make sense. It's a mystery exactly what happened, but the chest injury was so severe it could have caused instant death."

Cleveland grew up on a farm near Hickory Ridge Road and was a 1971 graduate of Franklin County High School.

He studied animal science at the University of Kentucky and moved to Letcher County in 1988.

Bates, a child psychologist, had spent the last month in Germany working on a program at U.S. Army bases. She kept in touch with Cleveland via Web cam and said the trees had interfered with his Internet connection.

"That was part of the reason why the tree was cut down," Bates said. "It was a terrible call. I came home the next day."

Cleveland came to love nature and animals while growing up on a farm in Franklin County, Bates said. That's why it's so hard to understand how he was killed in the accident Monday, she said.

"He grew up driving tractors and heavy equipment, cutting down tress and moving stumpswithout being hurt," Bates aid. "There must have been something about this that was dangerous that he didn't perceive."

After growing up, Cleveland made it his life's work to fight for environmental issues like mountain top removal, recycling and oil and gas legislation.
Bates said he reused plastic grocery bags, drove a hybrid car and only used energy-efficient light bulbs at home.

"He felt people were very wasteful with the precious resources we have," she said. "He thought environmental bullying was destroying too much of the creation around us."

Cleveland was also a certified high school and college soccer referee and was involved with alcohol and substance abuse programs.

In April, Cleveland was hired by the Sierra Club to work on mountaintop removal issues and to halt the construction of coal-fired power plants.
"It was like a marriage made in heaven," Bates said.

Cleveland also loved music and UK basketball.

However, Bates said Cleveland will be remembered most for his ability to make people laugh and feel at ease.

"He had a life force that couldn't be extinguished by death," she said.
His high school friend, Robert Martin, said Cleveland was a kind and strong person.

"He made the littlest person or the most ordinary person feel like they were important," Martin said.

Cleveland was also a trouble maker, which played an important part in his professional life, Martin said.

"He was a trouble maker on the good side of causes like environmentalism," Martin said. "He was known in Eastern Kentucky as someone who helped stand up to coal companies."

Martin stayed in touch with Cleveland throughout the years and said he was shocked to hear that his friend had died.

"This is hard," he said.

The Mass of Christian burial for Cleveland will be held at the St. Lawrence Catholic Church in Lawrenceburg at 11 a.m. Friday.

Visitation is from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday at Rogers Funeral Home.